Approaches to Teaching Shakespeare's Macbeth

New avenues for teaching Macbeth

Shakespeare’s Macbeth combines the themes of ambition, assassination, guilt, and the supernatural in ways that continue to provoke questions about political legitimacy, the construction of national and personal identities, and the role of violence in defining masculinity.

This insightful and informative volume will appeal to both seasoned Shakespeareans and beginning teachers. Part 1, “Materials,” introduces the most helpful scholarly and critical background works on Macbeth. Part 2, “Approaches,” addresses the play from many perspectives: among other subjects, essays examine how film adaptations, videos, novels, and memes inspired by the play explore ideas of authority and leadership. The topics traced in the volume―the uncanny and the ideological, trustworthiness and deception―point to the play’s continued relevance in classrooms today.

This volume contains discussion of Martin Campbell’s Casino Royale; Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth; Bob Dylan’s “License to Kill”; Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley; Antunes Filho’s Trono de Sangue; Susan Fraser King’s Lady Macbeth; Akira Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood; Lü Po-shen’s Sonata of the Witches; Shaun Manning and Anna Wieszczyk’s Macbeth: The Red King; Thomas Middleton’s The Witch; Jo Nesbø’s Macbeth; Sally O’Reilly’s Dark Aemilia: A Novel of Shakespeare’s Dark Lady; performances of Shakespeare’s Macbeth directed by Eve Best, Cressida Brown, Gregory Doran, Polly Findlay, Sam Gold, Rupert Goold, Justin Kurzel, Yukio Ninagawa, Trevor Nunn, Teller and Aaron Posner, Orson Welles, and others; and Penny Woolcock’s Macbeth on the Estates.